Every day we expect results: deliverables that are on time, on budget, and that meet specification. We deliver daily requests to service providers, following workflows that are designed to give us exactly what we need. But inevitably glitches occur in workflows. Maybe steps are skipped. Maybe there are holes in the design. Maybe time estimates are off. What happens then when the deliverable you receive is not what you asked for? What can you do when there’s an issue with getting the results you expect?
The first obvious response is to ask the vendor to fix the problem as quickly as possible to minimize impact and to ease case team frustrations. The concern is communicated to the vendor and the vendor agrees to fix it. If necessary, the project manager may ask the vendor to provide credit on the invoice to compensate for costs incurred due to the vendor’s mistake. When issues occur on a regular basis, the case team may track the issues on an issues log. Over time, if the vendor continues to make the same mistakes and service levels don’t improve, the firm may ultimately decide to take their business to a competitor. Threatening to take business elsewhere is not an uncommon remedy that firms use to get the results they seek when too many errors occur, and limited evidence exists for service improvement.
In a managed services environment, because you are dealing with an infrastructure and commitments designed to manage multiple cases, issue management goes a step further. Yes, the issues must be resolved, but looking around for another service provider can actually be counterproductive, creating an expensive and pervasive disruption across your managed services cases and case teams. Of course, under the terms of your Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) you can take that action, but you need to make sure you have first exhausted all other remedies available. How can you manage issues so that you get a higher service level while remaining in partnership with the same service provider?
The partnership established in a managed service arrangement provides a unique opportunity to manage issues that come up in your environment without looking to hand over your hopes and expectations to another vendor. The managed services agreement itself should include a mechanism to not only account for the problems that arise, but to work towards fixing them so they won’t happen again, either on the case in which it arose or other cases. In other words, issue management becomes process improvement, an opportunity to not only address issues on individual cases, but a means to identify themes upon which to focus for overall service level enhancement. A managed services environment encourages partnerships with service providers based on mutual respect and a commitment toward the same goals: the successful completion of projects (on time, on budget, according to spec) and ultimately, the satisfaction of the firm’s clients.
In our relationship with Epiq, we’ve developed a constructive way of managing issues that has actually reduced the number of issues in our environment in the past two plus years by half. Here are some tips on managing issues in a managed services environment based on what has worked for us:
1. Maintain an Issues Log – Issues are reported by the case team’s project managers and entered onto a log which is shared with the service provider (we use Smartsheet to collaborate so that all parties can see the updates in real time and respond in the same document). The log includes identifying information about the matter, a description of the issue, an issue category (quality issues, missed deadlines, technical errors) and a column for the service provider’s written response.
The service provider’s response is then relayed to the PM who reported the issue, closing the loop at the law firm, suppressing frustration and any ongoing resentment that may be experienced by case teams.
2. Conduct Relationship Calls – Regular meetings provide an excellent forum for touching base about what’s going wrong (individual issues), what’s going right and questions/comments about the environment in general or tools being used (or that need upgrading). It’s important to hear from the service provider about the issue from their perspective and how they will make changes internally to prevent the problems from reoccurring, whether it’s adjusting workflows, additional staff training, or securing new software. The service provider also uses this meeting to make suggestions for the attorney team to help prevent issues in the future, like providing reasonable deadlines, or using templates for clearer communication.
These periodic calls are not meant to be gripe sessions (although I will not deny there have been calls that may have felt a little rough around the edges). The calls are meant to improve the relationship, learn how each side works and to act on what is needed to get the job done.
3. Perform Process Improvement (Service Provider) – Sometimes the issue can be resolved by adding a new QC step or extra training. But for repeat bottlenecks, the service provider may want to formally investigate to determine if there are internal gaps that need to be addressed. Submitting issues to this process with Epiq has proved extremely useful and has significantly reduced the repeat offenders on the log over time as well as prevented new issues from arising. When the service provider takes action on every issue presented, service improves. Attacking the issues from all sides is an effort, but a fruitful one that improves the quality of service as well as the firm/vendor relationship.
4. Design a Service Level Agreement – If the process described does not improve the quality of service, and the same mistakes continue to occur, the SLA in your MSA should contain another level of recourse. If the service provider is consistently not meeting your expectations under the terms of the SLA, then the issues management methodology you use (the issues log in particular) can provides the facts and basis you need to support your claims that may result in receiving financial credits or even terminating your contract. While we approach our relationship with our service provider as a partnership, no one can predict the future. And if unforeseen circumstances compromise the service levels to an untenable degree, the SLA is the mechanism for handling that.
Issues still creep up on cases in our environment. We are not issue-free. But there are significantly fewer issues than there were in the first year of our relationship. That alone is success! Yet, we’ve also enjoyed another unexpected result. From addressing issues, we’ve discovered ways to improve processes that have created greater efficiencies across the board from which all cases can benefit. In many cases we would not have known about these improvements independent of the issues. And that part is quite exciting.
Nobody’s perfect. But if you apply a little discipline to fixing errors, identify the themes of key issues to address, and continue to look for ways to make the environment more efficient, everyone wins.
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